Abstract [en]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate how sustainable transport requirements are applied and transferred throughout the supply chain from logistics buyers to logistics service providers and further on to transport subcontractors so that the sustainable transport requirements can be fulfilled.

Methods: For the study, an in-depth single case study was conducted to evaluate the application and transferring of sustainable requirements throughout the supply chain. The chosen case has a defined supply chain including a logistics buyer, LSP and several transport subcontractors. Therefore, BillerudKorsnas (as logistics buyer), Schenker Dedicated Services (as LSP) and Spedition Bode, NVO Transport B.V. and GN Transport (as transport subcontractors) were selected. All data was collected through in-depth interviews and internal documents from the case companies. A narrative and cross- analysis were conducted to look for interpretations, insight and meanings of the outcomes by comparing and contrasting the data from the interviewees and documents. A total of fourteen interviews were conducted and eight interviewees from five case companies were involved.

Findings: According the logistics buyer BK in the case study, the application and transferring of sustainable requirements in the supply chain are equally important as traditional requirement such as overall costs, service quality and performance. However, the LSP and transport subcontractors found it that traditional criteria were preferred over sustainable requirements since customers and suppliers demand these requirements. Sustainable requirements are coming from different actors within the supply chain. From the logistics buyer BK, only handling requirements and sustainable according the Swedish Forest Federations Standards are included. The LSP on its turn increases the sustainable requirements towards transport subcontractors in terms of quantity. Then finally the included transport subcontractors do not find it difficult to fulfil these sustainable requirements since European laws are more demanding. To conclude, the level and number of sustainability requirements increases along the supply chain.

Academic contributions: The study shows how sustainable requirements are applied and transferred throughout the supply chain from logistics buyer to LSP and further on to the transport subcontractor. The authors shown the importance of inclusion of transport subcontractors when investigating sustainability requirements of transport in the supply chain.

Limitations and further research: Since the study is a single-case study, the generalizability is only limited to the number of case companies included in this study but the principles can be generalized. The transport subcontractors used in this study, only represented 12 percent of total transport share. Therefore, in future research more transport subcontractors should be included to increase the total transport share. Also, we recommend to conduct a comparable study within other supply chain to test the data empirically.